-The World Bank blog "Five years ago, I was no one," said Kunti Devi to me, sitting up straight against the wall of her one-room mud hut in Bara, a small village in India's eastern state of Bihar. "Now, people know me by my own name, not just by the name of my children." I was sitting on the floor, across from Devi, a mother of eight, who belonged to one of...

-PTI CHANDIGARH: Punjab government has chalked out an ambitious Rs 1,900 crore plan for the implementation of the " Greening Punjab Mission" with the target to increase the forest area from 7 to 15 per cent in next seven years. Under this ambitious mission, 40 crore saplings are to be planted on various places across the state, forest and wildlife preservation minister, Surjit Kumar Jyani, said in a release here. Under the...

-The Hindustan Times Bhopal: Now death audit of every patient who dies in a government hospital would be carried out. The health department's move will help to ascertain the cause of death of the patient. Another reason behind conducting the death audit is to monitor whether there was any negligence in treating the patient. Director, health, Dr KK Thassu said all chief medical and health officers (CMHOs) were instructed to conduct death...

-The Times of India BANGALORE: Ever wondered why the country is fast losing its forest cover? The simple answer is that large tracts of forest land are being handed over to public and private agencies in the name of development projects. Digest this: According to recent data acquired through RTI from the ministry of environment and forests by a group of environmentalists, the extent of forest land being diverted across the country...

-The Hindu State officials are apprehensive of targeted coverage and allocations Chennai: The National Food Security Bill, which is again in news these days, may be generating much excitement in most parts of the country, but not in Tamil Nadu. The reason: a more comprehensive model in the form of universal public distribution system is in place. Successive State governments in Tamil Nadu have held that the coverage of the PDS should be...